Obama stumps for Markey and himself

President Barack Obama traveled to Massachusetts Wednesday to deliver a campaign speech in defense of his own record, with Senate candidate Rep. Ed Markey along for the ride.

Obama took shots at his familiar foils – the Republican House, Washington gridlock and obstruction – and took credit for advances on the economy, the environment and health care since taking office.

And the Roxbury Crossing crowd, ostensibly gathered to support Markey’s Senate bid against Republican Gabriel Gomez, chanted the familiar O-ba-ma in response.

Obama praised the Senate’s progress on immigration reform and said he is willing to work across the aisle – yet blamed Republicans for his inability to enact some of the sweeping reforms he’s sought on gun control.

“Like on gun violence, there are a lot of Republicans out there who recognize we need some common sense gun safety measures. Some Republicans may be re-thinking the stances they took in the past. That’s good news,” Obama said. “We want to encourage that. But the fact of the matter is that a whole bunch of Republicans out there are not interested in getting things done. They think compromise is a dirty word.”

Obama offered a few points from Markey’s biography. The “son of a milk truck driver,” working odd jobs to pay his way through college, then “deciding to go to work for the people of Massachusetts.”

But beyond that Obama’s praise for Markey was that he will be a reliable Democratic vote.

“Most Americans aren’t asking for a lot, they know they’ve got to take care of themselves. They just want to make sure that if they’re working hard they can get ahead. That’s the essence of what it means to be a Democrat. And that’s why we’ve got to have folks like Ed Markey who are going to keep weapons of war off the streets and out of our schools, make it harder for criminals to get a gun in their hands.”

And Obama reminded Massachusetts Democrats of their failure in the last Senate special election – when Attorney General Martha Coakley lost to Scott Brown in January 2010.

“There are a whole lot of Democrats in this state and a whole lot of Obama voters,” Obama said. “You can’t just turn out during a presidential election. You’ve got to turn out in this election. You can’t think, ‘Oh, I did my work in 2012.’ You’ve got some work to do in 2013.”